Memoirs of a flamehead and a rubber brain
by Wanted-YamasakiC.E.SNaomi
Summary: Death was supposed to either be cold or warm, but at least filled with darkness. Well, this was not what Ace had thought would happen when he died. He had deffenetly NOT expected to be turned into a ten year old kid again but with a grown ups mind... This couldn't be right, right? (No pairings)
1. Prologue

**I know that I have **_**A lost Mugiwara**_** to work with and that quite the lot of you like it, well… mostly liked it I guess. But I have absolutely no ideas for it anymore and I can't think of anything but the ending and rushed scenes so I'm going to work with it deeper while I'll give you this to read instead. I'm going to remove **_**A lost Mugiwara**_** till I know that I can actually finish it which I don't know if I can do in my current state – which I don't want to go into so please don't ask. **

**This story has actually no meaning or connection what so ever to **_**A lost Mugiwara**_** and was just something I thought about while going through a few deviantart pictures that I found on my computer from 2010. I kinda found quite the few pictures that were about Ace and Luffy and their childhood and I know that I cried when they showed that Ace died, both in the manga and anime. I think that Ace deserved more viewers time since he have been loved by his fans since he actually was announced into the One piece world. So this is what came to mind and thanks for the two songs **_**The call **_**by **_**Regina Spektor **_**and **_**Been here all along **_**by **_**Miley Cyrus **_**this came out. I hope it will be enough to show how sorry I really am about what deleting **_**A lost Mugiwara**_**.**

**I don't own anything… seriously? You really believe I would be able to create the One piece? You are all flattering me… ^/^ Enjoy**

* * *

**~ Prologue ~ **

This wasn't really how he had thought that death would be. He had expected it to be dark, death cold or maybe a land engulfed in flames. He had expected complete pain and he had expected there to be some kind of punishment. Some kind of punishment for his sins, for all wrong he had done in his life. But this…? This wasn't what he had expected at all.

It was neither cold nor to warm. It was dark but that was because he had his eyes closed. But what was the most suspicious was the pain, or that there was no pain? Which was rather strange in his senses since his body was completely prepared for the pain to take over any minute. It never came; it never engulfed him or swallowed him. There was just a simple peace and quiet surrounding him. Was this really death, hell, the world of the sinners? Impel down had been worst then this.

As he slowly regained the feeling in his fingers he had to use his entire strength to move his hand just an inch, it was painful. But he didn't give up; he had to make sure for himself since there was clearly something wrong here. He could feel the taste of wild life in the air when he took a deep breath readying himself for the large injury that he would soon feel, that large gash in the middle of his chest that killed him. That had taken him from his little brother and from his family.

He trailed his fingers slowly over his chest feeling the thin fabric under his fingertips, but no gash and no bandages holding the injuries safe, just what seemed to be normal fabric. This shocked him deep since he clearly remembered the pain and the screams that echoed his name when the fist had pierced him. He remembered the shouts coming from his brother and he remembered the last words he'd said to his brother before the darkness swallowed him and that voice… that familiar but so far away voice that had said for him to come home. That had said to him that there was someone, no someone's waiting for him somewhere.

Taking a deep breath, he moved his other hand to the same spot over where his other hand was still traveling in search for the wounds and bandages, but it was a failed search attempt. He found nothing but the same fabric covering his chest. If he only could open his eyes, if he only could feel his entire body again; he needed to make sure of something.

Forcing his eyes open was even harder than moving his fingers and hands, it felt like he was opening stonewalls with just raw strength. But it wasn't the burden to open his eyes that surprised him, but the roof over his head. He had stared at that roof for so many hours before; he practically knew that roof by mind. But the question was 'what was it doing here'?

He slowly moved his head following the roof to a wall and traveled with his gaze down the wall till he was staring at a couple of boxes, a wooden floor and a simple paper door. Everything that he knew by heart and mind was here. What was this? What was going on? Where was he? Was this really death?

He frowned and sat up, feeling that could actually move his entire body again. He looked down on his small hands, yes, small hands. A child's hands, wrapped child's hands; both wrapped tightly with bandages. This only caused more confusion and frustration. He wasn't supposed to have small hands, he had pretty big hands but the reason was because he had been grown up and these… these clearly belonged to a child.

He looked around again before looking down on himself, a red sleeveless t-shirt; the arms had been furiously ripped away he could see when he looked closer. He placed his hands on his chest and tugged at the shirt looking at it, trying to spot blood or anything else indicating that he was bleeding and would die. He found nothing and when he looked inside the shirt he could only see his own childish chest, no scar, no wound, nothing that would be proof that he had been in war just around an hour ago.

He let go of his shirt and stood up on shaky legs before he took a deep breath and looked himself over closely, he had half expected a good couple of cuts and bruises from his time in Impel down but his legs and arms were smooth and untouched; showing that he hadn't been in battle between pirates and marines. But then why could he so clearly hear them shout and cheer when he had been freed? Why could he hear his Captain, the man he saw as his own father as if he had been a good father? Why could he still hear his little brother cry while saying that he had promised, that he was breaking a promise? This wasn't right, it wasn't this way it should be. He should be dead, so… why wasn't he?

Determined to find answers to what was happening he walked towards the paper door. Next to them was a pair of black shoes, shoes that he also remembered very clearly. He frowned again but put them on; just for the feeling of having the memories flow inside him. Taking another deep breath he opened up the paper door slowly looking outside, he saw a very familiar sight that he'd never thought that he'd see again.

The open space of the living room slash dining hall was empty and clean, the small fireplace in the middle still emitting a small puff of steam from the dinner that could still be smelled in the air. Walking into the room, another flash of memories ran before his eyes, memories of a time where everything seemed to be so simple.

He walked through the room towards the door leading out, knowing full well where he was going. The outside was chilly, cold and the smell of rain was lingering in the air, probably holding a truth about rain later when the sun would rise and expose the dark clouds that covered up the night's moon. The surroundings were darkened because of the lack of moon but he could clearly see the trees and the large amount of grass, the smell of animal and vegetation was thick in the air. He was in the middle of a jungle, a very familiar jungle.

He had to find out the truth now, before he would go crazy off all the memories that always seemed to flash before his eyes every time a new view came into mind. And with determined steps he walked towards the door leading towards what he full well knew would be the bath house.

True he was 'cause when he opened the door steam hit him in the face and the warmth in the room was tempting him inside away from the cold night. He walked towards the large barrel in the end of the small elongated room.

Glad that there was still water inside the barrel, he swallowed took a grip on the edge of it readying himself to be seeing his own face, his own reflection; a reflection he now feared to see. So when he well looked into the water he wasn't struck by surprise but mostly by confusion and fear. Fear for what he had been living had only been a dream and confusion to why he had then dreamt it up. If it all had been a dream than had he dreamt it because he wanted somewhere he could feel that he belonged or was it because he wanted to just get away from these stupid mountains? He didn't know, but what he did know was that the childish, dark and almost evil deep chocolate brown eyes staring back at him belonged to him along with the black mop of hair on his head and the overly boyish and childish freckles covering his cheeks.

Ace was ten years again…

* * *

**Hope that this wasn't too confusing by the overuse of the word **_**he**_**. But other than that I kind really find anything faulty with this. As you might have guessed the story is surrounding Ace after Marineford Arc, but this story also includes Luffy in a way that you won't really believe or see coming I'm sure… but since you guy's seem very good at guessing, as seen from **_**A lost Mugiwara**_** I'm sure that you'll be able to guess it anyways. **

**The straw hats also have a big deal in this story; they are part of the plot and are going to be mentioned later on in the story. You'll then understand why, since this is Ace and Luffy's childhood and not theirs. **

**Sabo will also make an entrance in this story since he does play a big part of Ace and Luffy's past. I'm no very good at characterizing people that haven't been shown or displayed much but I'm sure hope that I'm going to characterize him right, just give it a pling in the review or PM me if you find them OOC and I'll try my best to change that. **

**Hope you'll review and tell me your opinion, but of course you can tell it through following or favoring too, you decide of course. **


	2. Chapter 1 - Thinking things through

**I actually came this far, isn't it a miracle? I actually made it to the first – second, depends on how you see it – chapter and that I'm very proud of. I'm glad that some of you actually liked, favored and reviewed your opinion and please do not be scared to give credits or right my wrongs, I know that I need it. My native language isn't English and I stink at grammar, I'm usually pretty good at spelling but I know that I do a couple of faults there to. So please, don't be scared to mention my faults in the reviews. **

**Before I continue the story, I just want to tell you all that this story does not contain any main pairings, or any pairings at all in fact – the anime/manga doesn't even have main pairings. There might be some fluff between Nami and Luffy – like I said before in the last chapter the straw hats have a big deal in this – but it isn't anything close to romantic or relationship related. **

**I have nothing against Yaoi or Yuri, I actually, in some cases, enjoy reading such stories but I can't write a story involving around a Yaoi couple, reason? Well, I feel utterly embarrassed and I feel guilty because I know that those two characters maybe isn't even meant to be together, it feels wrong in some way. But I can assure you that I have nothing against homosexual people, as a girl, I have thousands of gay friends – every girl has at least one, I'm sure. **

**Now, I'm not gonna hold you up any longer, do enjoy yourselves and don't care about my constant babbling. I'm just ruining the story like that. Oh and of course… would you do me the honor Noami?**

_**Naomi ~ Sure, Wanted-YamasakiC. does not own One piece nor its characters. Don't flatter her; she won't get over it till a month's gone by. **_

**~ Thinking things through ~**

* * *

_And with determined steps he walked towards the door leading towards what he full well knew would be the bath house. He walked towards the large barrel in the end of the small elongated room. So when he well looked into the water he wasn't struck by surprise but mostly by confusion and fear. He didn't know, but what he did know was that the childish, dark and almost evil deep chocolate brown eyes staring back at him belonged to him along with the black mop of hair on his head and the overly boyish and childish freckles covering his cheeks. This wasn't right, it wasn't this way it should be. He should be dead, so… why wasn't he? _

_Ace was ten years old again…_

Without even thinking Ace tipped the large barrel over, not wanting to see his own reflection anymore. The large tin barrel fell to the floor with a very loud thud against the now soaked wooden floor. His eyes were widened and it only took him about a second to realize what he had done, wondering why he'd done it when it came to mind. When thinking about it Ace realized that it must be because when he was younger, around the age his body was right now, he had hated his own reflection, always finding it disgusting to see his own face. He never really understood why back there, maybe because people kept telling him that he shouldn't exist – they didn't really do it to his face but they had spoken about him and then it never was in a good argument. He took it as an old habit coming back to life again.

Standing there, water stains on his shirt, anger built up inside him. All anger that he'd consumed instead of letting it consume him was now bubbling up to the surface, all because of the situation he'd been put in. He didn't want to be ten years old again; he didn't want to relive life knowing that it would come to an end at a very early state in his life anyways. He had always seen himself as weak and small, unimportant at this age, the only reason to why he'd abandoned those thoughts was because of Luffy and Sabo, because they had given him a reason to live, at least for that moment. Than when he only had Luffy after… the accident… he had lived to protect his brother and make him ready for the sea that he so damn much wanted to see and live on. But that hadn't lasted forever since Ace also wanted to leave the small island they lived on and when he had, the thought of family and people that wanted to be around him had kept him alive. It had been the same aboard the Mody dick, the thought of belonging was new and he had loved it. Damn, he still loved it even if he might never see the damn ship again or Pops or even Marco. He missed it all and of course he wanted it all but he didn't want this second chance he was given, he didn't want to be the only one knowing that the people he called family would die. Ace looked at his own reflection that mirrored him on the floor in the spilled water and for the first time in over ten years Ace found himself really wanting to die.

There must be a really good reason to why the gods decided to punish him like this, he had never done anything that didn't protect the once he cared of. He didn't hurt innocent – okay, he maybe was a pirate and pirates may kill people, but he had never intentionally hurt an innocent human – and he wasn't obsessed over riches, fame or gold, all Ace had really wanted was just somewhere he belonged and an answer to the question that he endlessly asked himself.

When the door to the bath house flew open with such force that a strong gust of wind that he thought he would go with it Ace wasn't very surprised to see the orange curly haired fat lady standing in the door opening before she shouted, "What the hell, Ace!"

Raising an eyebrow waiting for her to continue knowing that the large bomb of cuss words and insults along with a harsh long scolding he couldn't care less about to fall.

"You might not care about sleep, you little brat, but there are sure others here who surely do and needs their beauty sleep!" Ace raised both eyebrows at the last part. What beauty sleep? Did she mean herself? Then there weren't enough hours of the day. "If you insist on making such horribly loud noises in the middle of the night when the rest is sleeping than you can go and do it somewhere else because we ain't want it here!"

Magra appeared before the furious mountain bandit with his ridicules chicken hair and said his usual phrase when Dadan was angry, "Now, now boss," but also as usual he only received an angry glare in return.

"Why don't you just go and die somewhere so we can finally get some quiet around here?" Ace couldn't help but think that she looked hilarious with the steam rising around her, it made her look like some kind of bad imitation of… well he couldn't really find something to compare her to but she sure looked hilarious. "You should be more grateful that we even take care of you at all, we could just throw you into the forest whenever we wanted!"

Ace had the urge to say sorry and that he wouldn't do it again but remembered that around this age he wasn't really full of manners, he usually insulted people and didn't care what they thought or said about him. So instead he said just as plainly and ignorantly as he could, "Like I care," and walked passed Dadan to return to his room. He had a lot of things on his mind that he needed to sort out, like where was Luffy right now? He didn't seem to be here, had he even arrived in the mountains yet? What would Luffy be like? Would he be the same as Ace remembered him to be or would this change how Luffy was? Or should he just go and die, like Dadan had put it. But how would that change the time line? Would things change, like he didn't end up a pirate or Luffy never meeting Sabo or him? Ace had other things to think about than just Luffy as well, like how to go back to his own time… or return to the land of the dead where he belonged at the moment. How would this change his future? Was this really a second chance or a state before dead so he could relive all his mistakes? Would things change because of this? And most of all, the question that he really wanted to have an answer to, _why_ was he here and_ what_ was the purpose of this?

Not caring to listen to Dadan when she called after him to stop and listen when she talked to him, he walked back to the storage that was his room, but instead of going back to sleep he just sat down on the few blankets made out to be his bed, a thinking expression on his face. He wasn't sure if he should change anything from the way it actually should be in the past, not knowing the impact it could have on the future. But then again, maybe it was a good change, like Sabo would be alive or that Thatch wouldn't die, he would never know but… was he willing to take the risk to change something when he didn't know if he changed it for the good or the worse.

Ace scratched his hair frustrated by the situation, he knew that he knew Sabo; he had known Sabo for about five years before he died, if he wasn't wrong which he knew he wasn't. It maybe didn't look like it but Ace was actually pretty smart for his young age, of course not smarter than Sabo who seemed to overthink every situation but he was still smarter than average kids his age. But back to the subject, would Sabo believe him if he told him the truth? The chance was there that he would believe him, but then again, the future he had seen and thought to have lived could only be some kind of dream he had made up for himself. But the chance was also that Sabo would call him completely crazy and say that he needed to see a doctor and that wasn't something Ace wanted. Seeing as he wasn't really supposed to exist to the outside world until he was old enough to take responsibility for his own actions and – as the gramps had put it – become a strong marine (ha like that would happen).

Then there was the problem what he would do when Luffy arrived if he hadn't arrived already and wasn't chased by wolfs at the bottom of the valley that he'd once pushed Luffy into – by complete accident, of course! But if Luffy hadn't arrived, it wouldn't be hard to make the rubber boy to believe him since, well… it was Luffy after all, and he would believe almost anything someone told him. Seriously, he once saw Luffy believe when someone said he had ten thousands of soldiers hidden with him, which was a little unbelievable but knowing Luffy he bought it till his friends said that it of course was a complete lie. But telling Luffy would mean that he would want to know what the future would be like which probably wouldn't be such a good thing to tell him, from what Ace knew messing with time could have a serious impact on the future, bigger and more horrible than one would believe - he needed to stop reading so much science fiction. He could also pretend to be like he had been when he first met Luffy, a complete asshole. Ace sweat dropped at the thought, it would be too hard to even try, he cared too much for his little brother then any blood related relatives would ever. But then again…

"Gua~a!" Ace muffled the scream but face planting into the pillow. Why would it be so damn hard? If it was hard now he could only imagine how hard it would be when the rubber brain actually arrived. He could never be so harsh and mean towards his brother that he'd been back then, that would be impossible! He wasn't that kind of person anymore, okay maybe some anger issues had bubbled up since he arrived, which hadn't only _that _– which meant hardly no time at all – been long ago but that seemed to be the only problem at hand _a~and_ of course the one with Luffy.

Then there was Sabo. Ace paled directly. Sabo had known Ace for five years, he would notice if there was any change in his behavior! With the brain that kid had there would only be a matter of time before Sabo would realize that Ace wasn't acting like… Ace? No, that was just confusing… Gol D. Ace – Ace shivered at the thought of the name he'd been given – wasn't acting like Gol D. Ace, to put it simple. This would surely be a big problem, he couldn't treat his little brother like dirt but he still couldn't just change because Sabo would notice the change immediately.

Ace let out a groan into the pillow. "Why does time travel always have to be so simple in books but so hard in real life?" he asked to no one in particular. There would surely be some kind of solution to this problem, right? There always was, or should be, so why was it so hard to find it? Because life hated him, that was why. Life liked to play with his life and treat him like dirt; that was the only reason Ace could think of. "Why is it that life always seems to like to fuck with me and no one else?" Ace frowned into the pillow. "And now I'm talking to myself… great I'm already losing it."

He sat up and looked around the room. There had to be something that would show him what had happened, or at least some clue to how he could come back to his time, even if he was dead in that time line he didn't want to go through puberty… twice! It was good enough that he had to go through it once and it was horrible enough. But all Ace could see or recognize was the different sized boxes around the room and they'd been there for as long as Ace could remember, and he wasn't anything interested of what was inside them. He had been interested when he was younger, or now it probably was only a couple of three four years ago, and looked inside them to only find clothes or baby stuff that probably been his when he'd been a toddler. He practically shivered at the thought of raising a D. baby, must have been horrible. He actually felt a little – but just a little – sorry for Dadan and the mountain bandits.

* * *

**And that was the end of the first chapter/second page of the story. It wasn't very much of an explanation to what happened but this story is very long since I'm going to try and follow canon as much as I can even if it will be hard, reason because twenty year old Ace (Portgas D. Ace) and ten year old Ace (Gol D. Ace) isn't even THAT much alike when you look at it. It is only after Sabo died that Ace actually started caring, and then I mean like caring like for a brother (he got a brothers complex), over Luffy. I know that he really cared for Lu from the beginning of their friendship but he became more protective during the time after his brothers' death.**

**This chapter was neither long nor showing much of the plot, but that that will come later in the story and I'm going to try and drag out on the story as much as I can so that it will last longer than any of my stories have till now (which includes only **_**A lost Mugiwara **_**which didn't last more than three chapters XD). **

**And now there is time for reviewers! Whooo!**

**To: Fifth-of-fourth**

**No sorry, this won't be an AceXLuffy story, I kinda feel awkward both reading and writing such stories, some are good but that depends on how good they are written or if they warn in the beginning that the story will be Yaoi, but this story is sadly not one of them. **

**Thanks for straightening out my faults; I'm not very good in either grammar or spelling – even if I can spell fairly well. I do tend to use the word 'had' and 'he/she' quite a lot. I'm trying to fix that but… well, still working on that fault, I'm doing better though. **

**Yeah, I would totally freak(!) if I was in Ace situation, but he isn't the one to go crazy just over a challenge. He seriously chased Blackbeard for what in the anime/manga seemed like almost a year which is quite impressive. But well it is Ace so we'll just have to wait and see what he does. **

**Yeah, I agree… Poor, poor Ace XD Also hope to hear from you too :)**

**To: Anjelle**

**I'm glad you like the story and the premise (just found out what the word means XD, I need to extend my vocabulary). I didn't really try so very hard to make it overly good, since that would one, explain to much, two, seem to focused on and that would make the rest of the chapters less focused and therefor they would have more spelling errors and grammar faults and three, I tried my hardest to drag out on it a little, not too short and not too long. In my opinion I made quite a good job, or what do you say? **

**I'm glad that you'll keep a look out; it's not very often that one of my stories gets too many reviews or likes. I'm thinking also about a lot of things that can be told and written in this story since this story takes place in the past anything can happen and since we don't really know that much about Ace and Luffy's childhood than the information we've gotten form the anime/manga I thought that it would interesting to see how Ace would react but I found no story like this so I decided to write one myself. Hope to hear that you like it in the future :)**

**To: ****xXxEmeraldBlueXxX**

**I'm glad you think it is creative. I've always wanted to see more of Ace childhood or write something about it and this was an idea that I knew haven't been used too much, I think. I have read stories where characters turn into children but not like in this category. And yes wouldn't it have been awesome? **

**To: E (Guest) **

**I will, keep a wide eye open for the horizon and ya'll see it sooner than ya think ;) **

**To: ASLfangirl**

***Lets out a sigh of relief* I was scared that it would not be interesting at all, now you've eased my worries. **


	3. Chapter 2 - What the !

**Okay, I guess I'd expected a little more reviews for the last chapter, but O'well can't have everything and thanks for the few reviews I got :) And I'm not really doing this for the reviews but for the fun of it since who doesn't like to make fantasies about the One piece stories? I do all the time it is just that I never post most of the ideas since I've already got a story going. **

**Naomi…?**

**Naomi ~ Sure thing, boss. Wanted-YamasakiC. ain't the owner of one piece. Didn't I tell you to flatter her? *sigh* **

* * *

_He sat up and looked around the room. There had to be something that would show him what had happened, or at least some clue to how he could come back to his time, even if he was dead in that time line he didn't want to go through puberty… twice! It was good enough that he had to go through it once and it was horrible enough. But all Ace could see or recognize was the different sized boxes around the room and they'd been there for as long as Ace could remember, and he wasn't anything interested of what was inside them. He had been interested when he was younger, or now it probably was only a couple of three four years ago, and looked inside them to only find clothes or baby stuff that probably been his when he'd been a toddler. He practically shivered at the thought of raising a D. baby, must have been horrible. He actually felt a little – but just a little – sorry for Dadan and the mountain bandits. _

Ace wasn't sure if one could suffer from insomnia for just one night or not but he was certainly sure that it was either that that kept him up all night or he was just getting paranoid – already. He hadn't been able to sleep at all the night before and when morning came his ten year old body was exhausted and tired after the lack of sleep during most of the night. Not that the nightmares helped him out very much either. For the few hours he'd slept – around 1-2 hours to be more exact – nightmares had been plaguing Aces mind. He'd been twisting and turning, the images of the war hunting him and even if the images only lasted less than seconds the screams seemed to ring in his ears even when he woke up in cold sweat. But the screams that rang in his ears wasn't the screams of his friends or Pops or any of the marines… no, the screams that rang in his ears were the screams of his little brother as he fought his way through the war only to have lost what he had fought so hard for.

_Damn…_ Ace thought as he put his head in his hands, sweat was running down his forehead. All he could think off was Luffy, how he had let his little brother down. It must have been hard seeing his own brother die before his eyes, Ace probably wouldn't be able to take a hit like that again even if it had been years ago since last time. Or it hadn't happened yet but… _Aagh! This is so frustrating! _

Not really wanting to go back to sleep, not daring to hear his brothers scream again, Ace decided to go up since morning was clearly here already with all the noise from the living room. What was going on out there anyways? Were there something happening that he didn't remember or didn't know about?

Walking out into the living room or dining hall, depends on how you see it since it was pretty much the only large space in the small house, and the first thing he saw was a monkey, not very big probably the same size as a seven year old Luffy, landing right in front of him just standing there staring at him.

"What the…" Ace said and made a confused face. He then turned towards the mountain bandits who stood frozen ready to catch the monkey if it would start moving again. "Why the hell is there a monkey in the house?"

Dogra was the one to answer, "He must have gotten in last night when Boss stormed in in anger because that you woke her up, she must have left the door open." _Man it's been so damn long since I've heard or even saw these guys!_

"She didn't have to ask what was happening," Ace said and raised an eyebrow. Were they really this pathetic? Wow, memories faded faster than he'd thought.

"You didn't have to make such noise!" one of the mountain bandits shouted back, when Ace looked at him clearly seeing a pair of dark bags under his eyes.

He was about to give back a nasty reply – what? He didn't like it when people shouted at him. He was jumped and pushed to the ground in the matter of seconds that he didn't even realize what had happened until he was lying on the floor, someone on top of him with its face too damn close to his own and now a freaking large bump in the back of the head where he'd hit the floor.

Growling he stared into the black eyes of the monkey who seemed very fascinated by him by some reason. "Get the fuck off of me!" Ace shouted and started kicking and trying to punch the monkey but never got a good spot to reach it at.

SLAP!

Ace froze, just blinking as the room went dead quiet. Had that monkey just… he had just… HAD HE JUST SLAPPED HIM?! Ace could feel the fire rage inside him and it felt like his teeth was sharpening and how he slowly grinned an evil.

"You are in so much trouble," he said to the monkey with such a sweet voice he but yet with so much evil in it that even the mountain bandits backed away from him. "Get. OFF. OF. ME!"

The monkey jumped high in the air as Ace shouted the last sentence and the monkey ran across the room with a furious Ace after him – with a red hand like shaped print on his cheek. A couple of curse words were heard from the young ten year old as he ran around the room after the – as Ace had put it – _horrible annoying fucking idiotic bitch monkey_! He WAS going to capture that monkey and he WAS going to grill it to a crisp.

The mountain bandits stared at the ten year old kid; it almost seemed as if fire was surrounding his aura; not that it wasn't usual, Ace was always having this strange aura around him but this was like he was really on fire and yet there was no fire to be seen, the mountain bandits were frightened… uh… more than usual when Ace gets angry.

But what they didn't know was that Ace had actually meant to catch on fire, he was really meaning to burn that monkey to a crisp and maybe even serve it as breakfast for the dog but what he didn't notice that he wasn't really on fire.

The monkey had climbed up the iron chain in the middle of the room that held the pot over the little fire place underneath it and was staring with frightened eyes at the kid standing down on the floor ready to climb up the chain himself just to get to that monkey.

"Ace, take it easy," Magra said and put his hands on Ace's shoulders to keep the kid on the floor. "It wasn't the monkey's fault, it is just scared."

"I'll give it something to be scared of!" Ace shouted as he tried to get out of Magra's grip but failed.

"Ace!" the mountain bandits stood still and the room was filled with an awkward silence as they turned towards the curly haired over weight woman. "Stop ruining my house and get outside!"

Before Ace knew it, he had been thrown outside with Dadan standing in his way to get inside. "And don't get inside until night falls!" and with that the door slammed shut.

Ace stood up from the ground turned towards the door and stuck out his tongue as if it would make anything better. Realizing that he was acting like a complete child Ace just stood there for what felt like forever, trying his hardest to understand why he had done it, why he had gotten so angry with just a monkey? That wasn't like him at all! All he could think up was that he was being affected by being ten years old again.

He let out a sigh and turned towards the large jungle. It was the same jungle that he'd grown up knowing like the back of his hand and a place he never wanted to see again, yet here he was before it once again as if nothing had ever happened, as if he never left it.

He decided that the best he could do was to at least try and sort his head out, it was a complete blur, and his head was like a storming sea mixed with thunder and lightning. It was getting annoying already, he was freaking out already and he had had enough already.

"What the hell is going on here anyway?" Ace muttered to himself as he walked through the jungle, ignoring the animals that were trying to eat him, in fact it was as if he never even saw them and his body was just acting on instinct moving by itself. "This is Mt. Colubo that much I'm sure of. But what I don't understand is why I'm here? Have I gotten a second chance of life? If so, then why just me and not someone else?"

Ace looked up at the trees green hats in different colors, he could faintly see the sky through the tops and he wasn't sure if he ever seen something so beautiful in his life. He could faintly remember seeing this view once before but he never really paid much attention to it since, he hadn't cared about such things back then. At that time Ace had only cared about getting out of Goa kingdom and make the world acknowledge his existence. Now he wasn't so sure he wanted that anymore if it would lead to the death of so many.

He turned forward again and blinked in surprise. The view surprised him greatly. It was the clip that he and Luffy and talked at when Sabo had died, when they had found out that he was gone. This was the place that they had made a promise to never regret anything ever again. It made him smile.

Ace walked towards the cliff and sat down with his legs dangling over the edge, he couldn't imagine how many memories and how much time had been spent here. There had to be quite a lot of them if he couldn't recall everyone.

He felt so down… As if something was missing from his life in a way. But he knew what it was; it was the feeling of emptiness and loneliness. Mt. Colubo wasn't the same without goofy Luffy around.

"Ace!" Ace froze immediately when the words reached his ears.

* * *

**And here is the second/third chapter of **_**Memoirs of a flame head and a rubber brain**_**! Not very interesting happened except that Ace was walking and thinking, I should have warned that it would be quite a lot of that in the beginning, sorry. **

**And yeah, about that with the monkey… hehehe… I first wanted to put Luffy there and that he would hug Ace in a death hug but then I thought that it would be funnier with a monkey and it would be more interesting if Ace got a new chance from the very beginning of his ten year old life. A beginning from when his life actually got a meaning (and that meaning was a brother's complex but we all know that). **

**Well, I wonder who that person is, well find out in the next chapter. Enjoy and please review.**

**Now for the reviews!**

**To: SimpleLaces**

**Thanks :) I will go on, I know that there is quite the lot I can do with this story. **

**To: Lunacii**

**Well, of course he would freak out about not being able to be mean to Luffy! Those two are thick as thieves or how it goes. I don't think that the current Ace (adult Ace, the Ace I call Portgas D. Ace) has it in him to be mean to his little brother after what happened with Sabo. But I thought it would be OOC if Ace didn't freak out about Luffy and not being able to be mean to him like he'd been in the past. It just seemed like Ace to me. **

**To: Haruka-desu**

**I update every Wednesday, or I try to so that it will be a week's distance between the chapters. **

**To: Anjelle**

**I know, I would freak out immediately if that would happen to me! **

**Oh believe me when I say that he is going to do slip-ups 'cause who wouldn't? It must be hard to keep a secret as that your brother is going to die or what else happened in Ace past. I would try and change them directly! And well, we gotta have some misery, everything can't go like black and white all the way now can it? I would just think that as boring and stop reading directly. And it is okay to have ideas, if you want to you can PM some of them and I might be able to use them in the story later on. Who knows?**

**Yeah… that was quite some stories you got going… I can hardly keep one going. How do you do it?!**

**To: RoseDragonWitch**

**Well you'll have to find that out as the story goes on. Sorry, no spoilers here hon. **


	4. Chapter 3 - Palms are weird

**I'm very sorry that I haven't been able to upload the last time and I'm going to make it up to you by giving you another chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

**pS: Don't own okay? **

* * *

Ace eyes were wide. That voice, with that whining tone to it yet full of courage. It couldn't be; it shouldn't be… No it wasn't supposed to be… neither word described his feelings when he heard that voice. Could it be that he had arrived during the time where it was the three of them still? It didn't seem to have passed the accident yet and yet it didn't seem like he should be here.

With a heart threatening to jolt out of his chest, Ace turned around to see the seven year old running towards him. He was waving his hand with that usual large grin on his face, his eyes showing the same happiness that it always showed.

"Ace, wait for me!" Luffy shouted as his breathing seemed to increase the closer he seemed to come to Ace and yet it seemed as if he was never going to reach the older boy with as much time it seemed to take him to even get one inch closer to reach Ace.

"Luffy…" Ace whispered, sweat running down his forehead, the sun seemed to burn his skin for what felt like the first time in ages. "…You're…"

Luffy closed the distance between the two of them and was so close that Ace could even touch him if he so wanted to when, clumsy as he was, Luffy tripped and yet the expression of happiness didn't disappear as he hit the ground. He himself did.

Ace eyes widened even more when he saw the smoke puffs of the illusion disappear and he fell backwards staring at the place where the illusion of his brother had disappeared. He wasn't sure if he should be afraid or not but he wasn't, no not scared; his heart was aching.

"Ace! Ace! ACE!"

Ace blinked and stared up from where his brother had disappeared and just now noticed the black pants standing before him with the blue fabric falling down beside it. Following the fabric up towards the face he was met by a pair of dark blue eyes that was full of confusion.

"Ace, are you okay?" the young blond curly haired boy said plain confused at what the black haired boy did on the ground.

Ace opened his mouth to speak but his voice failed him as he tried to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat the moment he realized who the boy before him was.

"S… Sabo…" Ace whispered as the boy frowned.

"Yeah?" Sabo asked and raised an eyebrow.

"B…b… but you… No… T… thi…" Ace started but shut himself up by covering his mouth with his hand to keep himself from speaking any further.

"Are you okay, Ace?" Sabo asked looking at Ace with confusion and surprise. "This isn't like you… at all!"

Sabo just stared at how stupid Ace looked and then couldn't help but laugh as he fell backwards in a laughing fit. "You look so stupid, Ace!" he laughed.

"Oi!" Ace shouted jumping to his feet as he stared at the laughing kid on the ground. "Like you look any better..!"

Sabo stopped laughing, took a deep breath and looked at Ace closely. "Now you are more like the Ace I know." He sat up as he grabbed the pipe he'd dropped during his laughing fit. "We still have work to do, right?"

"Aa," Ace said as he saw Sabo smile his usual toothy grin that made one see that missing tooth. "I just need to get my pipe and we'll be on our way."

* * *

"Hmm…"

Sabo turned towards his childhood friend and raised an eyebrow. _What is he doing?_ Sabo asked himself as he stared at Ace who currently stood up on the thick tree branch they'd stationed themselves in to have a greater view over the Gray terminal staring at his palm.

"That's weird…"

Sweatdropping Sabo looked at Ace palm over the elder's shoulder but saw nothing but his regular palm. "Okay, Ace, I wasn't going to ask but you've been creeping me out for the last ten minutes so I'm asking anyway. _What_ are you doing?"

Ace looked at him before he looked back at his palm. "I'm just curious to w… something."

"Something?"

"Yeah."

"And that _something_ is what?"

"Classified information! Now are we going to do this or not?" Ace laughed away the atmosphere that had been created to ease the suspicion.

"Okay…" Sabo said and looked over Ace carefully. In his conclusion there had to be something wrong with him that he wasn't telling and he wanted, no had to figure out what. "I'll take the west side of the city, you'll take the east?"

Ace nodded and grabbed the pipe balancing against the tree's thick stock. "Let's do this!" he half shouted as he jumped down from the tree leaving Sabo shaking his head in the tree. He didn't get his friend at all and they'd known each other for five years soon.

The two separated at the gate Ace leaving towards the east while Sabo took the rout towards the west.

Mumbling things to himself Sabo couldn't get what felt so… off?... with his friend. There were something different in his behavior, at least from what he remembered form the day before at least.

Could it be that Ace had been through something that he hadn't told Sabo? Maybe he didn't trust him at all! But that wouldn't really matter since Ace didn't trust anyone so that was out of the count. Or Ace could just have plain matured and become more grown up, at least more than Ace himself though he'd grown up at least. But that didn't explain the different aura he had either. Usually Ace's aura was dark and full of hatred and now it was… happy and proud almost. That was… different, very different.

"Hey squirt!"

Sabo spun around pipe ready in his hands. He glared at the tugs facing him; they all reeked even from his distance.

"I've seen ya' before," the man who'd shouted for him said. "Ya're that kid right… Sayo or something like that, right?" Sabo gritted his teeth at the man who walked closer towards him. "Well, ya see, two o' ma men were robbed yesterday and tey'd both said it was ye, who di' it'. So why no' hand over t' gold n' no one'll get hurt… well no' t'at much."

"I don't have any gold," Sabo said and took a step back. It wasn't that he was scared or such but he didn't want to fight a man head on if he didn't have anything valuable to steal from them afterwards, it was just a waste of time.

"'Eally? T'en what 'appened t' tha gold ya' stole from ma men yesterday, huh?" The leader of the pack stared at Sabo with his ugly yellowish eyes and grinned a – very – unfriendly grin showing of yellow and black teeth.

"I don't have it," Sabo said, ready if there'd be an attack. "I have never seen neither you nor your men before."

The man growled and walked up to Sabo reaching out his hand towards the kid. "Ya littl'…!" he started but never really got a chance to finish as a dark shadow with quite a fears aura came up behind the man.

***Bam***

"What kind of man are you attacking small kids like that!" a female voice shouted, from behind the man a female figure could he sighted holding a pole (which Sabo guessed was what had hit the man in the head) with large globes on it connecting what seemed to be separable pieces. "Leave this kid alone, you scum!"

* * *

Ace had had no luck at all at finding anyone to rob of their valuables. Last time he remembered there to be at least someone to rob since pirates and thieves often came to the outer parts of the city but alas he'd had no luck at all. But that wasn't really so surprising to him either.

Letting out a sigh he walked towards the large gate where he saw Sabo stand grinning happily with a large sack next to him. "Great, now I'm never gonna hear the end of this one…" he mumbled as he walked towards his future brother. "Yo!"

"Yo, Ace! Look at this," Sabo said and pointed towards the sack. "Isn't it big?"

"Yeah, bigger than what we've gotten together these past five years," Ace said and opened the sack slightly and looked inside of it. His eyes widened and he almost fell backwards by surprise. "Where'd you get this much gold?!"

Sabo grinned even wider. "Some woman helped me," he said. "But she took more than half of what we'd gotten."

Ace just stared at the blond dumbstruck. "This is… less than half… of what you got?"

"Ah." Sabo nodded. "But it's a lot anyways; I got help carrying it here by her friend. Now help me carry this one back since you don't seem to have gotten anything." He said the last part smirking.

"Don't push your luck, boy!" Ace whisper-shouted but hoped deep inside that Sabo hadn't heard him.

* * *

**Haha! And I'm done with this chapter! What do you think? Quite exciting don't you think? Well, I hope you like and review or whatever it is you want to do :)**

**And can anyone guess who the woman was? Anyone…?! The one who guess right first gets a cookie! *Waves cookie in front of readers eyes* You can only get it if you guess right…!**

**Sorry it's shorter than the earlier chapters. **


End file.
